Rita's Ramblings: a basically house-bound woman in Fargo, North Dakota blogging for friends, family, and anybody who finds it interesting. I talk about art or craft projects, my grandson (Ian), the weather, movies, books, health, and whatever happens to be going on in my life. Welcome!

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

My leg (sciatica) started acting up the last few days and will only let me stand for maybe ten minutes at a time...

...so I gradually emptied the parts of the art&craft bookcases in the living room that I want to reorganize.

This is what it looked like by Monday morning. I have become such a creature of habit since morphing into a day person that, when I couldn't even get to my craft table for my morning journaling and letter writing...

...I discovered that I really missed sitting by those windows to greet the day. ;)

Oh, also I hung the fancy Danish whisk next to the colanders. Love it! (Will get to my sourdough experiment later this winter after I am done dealing with this domino-cleaning-avalanche.)

Karma and I got a late Christmas package from England! Tori sent me a calligraphy set...

...and Miss Karma got three flavors of these treats she goes nuts for. Haven't seen them in the cat head containers here, don't know why she thinks they taste so delightfully different than any US Whiskas treats, but there you have it. Tori spoils her rotten! Thanks, Tori!!

I kept puttering for my 8-10 minute sessions yesterday.

At least I cleared off the end of the table so I can do a little writing in my favorite spot today--whoohoo! (There's a shot of my thermal mug of coffee for T Stands for Tuesday.)

I feel like I am doing some kind of dance shuffle--LOL!

I put something put on a shelf...but then don't like it there and move it someplace else...or I decide it really needs a different container and go on an apartment search...which leads to a box shuffle in the bedroom--LOL!

I keep shifting, switching, tweaking, and shuffling things about. I'll eventually settle on where things should go...for now...and I haven't even started in the bedroom! As I have been organizing the hallway and living room bookcases...well, there's been a slight tornado effect going on in the bedroom from all this shuffle-dancing--LOL! ;)

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Because of all the chaos I am not going to be doing my usual gathering up of all my crystals, angels, rocks, and Tibetan stuff this New Year's Eve. That takes up the whole table...which means I'd have to move all that mess off of there...and since my leg also remains only hesitantly cooperative at the moment (my body is the boss of me--feel free to add your own expletives)...well, I shall just happily do a regular sacred circle ceremony tonight (angel cards, burning bowl, light a candle)...which up until a few years ago was all I used to do on New Year's Eve anyways.

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[Note: For those of you new to my blog this year, you can snoop in the beginning of January for pictures of all my "stuff" I've been dragging out for dusting, cleaning, and reenergizing every New Year's Eve. :) There have been pictures for the last several years. Can't remember when I started doing that, though.]

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Anyways, tonight is the night! Today I shall keep puttering, write lists for 2014, be a heating pad for Karma several times a day (funny how cuddly she gets when it's colder), journal, work on letters, and Caroline comes to clean this afternoon. Tomorrow--New Year's Day--the first day of 2014--I have something special to tell you! But I shall leave you in suspense for now. (Mean, I know!) Till then...

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Happy, happy New Year!!!

I just love New Year's Eve!! It is overflowing with reflection, nostalgia, contemplation, anticipation, planning, and hope! Filled with lessons and memories. Brimming with anticipation and wonder. Ahhhh!

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Yes!! Yes!!

Happy, happy New Year, everybody!!!

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"Be in love with your life.

Every minute of it."

Jack Kerouac

"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Hope you all had a nice holiday. :) I have been so busy! Still have not been online to visit everyone--sorry. But the dominoes are definitely falling over here--albeit slowly--they are falling--LOL!

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Christmas Day Miss Karma watched It's A Wonderful Life with me. Well, for a few minutes, anyways.

Santa actually stopped by. (Who knew she was a woman of color?--LOL!)

We've had dark days and sunny days, but it was in the 20s!

I did sort all the magazines into separate bags. Will post them on freecycle some time in January.

That gave me two empty shelves!

That I filled with the Cuttlebug and supplies and all the bookbinding supplies I could find and fit in there--which was most of them, I think--tada! :) Happy me!!

While I was searching for my scattered bookbinding things, I found the box of half-finished "scrap" cards! When I pre-cut all the covers for the bookcards from 12 X 12 inch paper I have all these scraps left over that are all the same size.

I had already matched the printed paper scraps with some solid paper scraps, glued them together, and picked out some old cardstock for the bases. There was a ton of them and I had already made up way over half of them (this was several years ago)...until I got sick of doing them, to be honest. So here was this stack of half-finished scrap cards---just begging to be stuck together.

All I had to do was find a ribbon to cover the seam...

...tape the ribbon down & around the back and then attach it to the card front.

I saw there were also small scraps left from cutting the various pieces down further to fit the card...so I sat and matched up all the ones I could find so that I could just stick the strips inside on the corner. I worked on these for a couple of nights while I watched TV...

...and finished up 42 scrap cards!

Now, if I wanted to...

...I could add more to them...

...with do-dads and such, you know?

But, knowing me, I may never get around to it--LOL! Regardless, they will work just fine for tucking letters inside. Anything but fancy...but they're all put together. May take me years sometimes, but I do finally get around to most things. ;)

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Yesterday was gorgeous! Low 30s! Sunny. Water dripping off the roof. Snow melted off the porch and Karma thought it was springtime! She asked to go out several times and she'd park herself by the door there to watch for swallows. Long, long time till spring, Karma--LOL! She can be such an optimist. ;)

This morning we saw the sun briefly--but it hid behind the clouds pretty rapidly. The deep freeze is upon us once again and the temperature is dropping. Supposed to get down to 22 below by tonight and stay below zero all week. Karma only asked to go out once this morning. She's a realistic-optimist. ;)

The dominoes are falling. I've now started working on the art & craft bookcases in the living room.

Always gets messier before it is all organized, right?

So that is why I haven't been around online and it may seem like I fell off the edge of the earth--LOL! Looks like this cleaning and organizing streak will continue for the foreseeable future, too. Well, you know right where I am and what I am doing. :) Feels good to take a break and sit here chatting with you with my friend the heating pad at my back, though. I just do a little at a time...and as long as I keep moving the sciatica and my back have been behaving pretty well for me...unless I am up too long. Never fear--my body keeps me in line. ;) It's been feeling somewhat on the mellow side lately so I am thrilled to be able to get all this done. Whoohoo!!

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New Year's is just around the corner! I love the changing of the year. It's one big dose of nostalgia, contemplation, and hope. I may not see you again until then, but enjoy-enjoy-enjoy these last days of 2013!! :):)

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"The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. "

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

I grew up opening presents on Christmas Eve night. I had a package from Janie Junebug that she told me not to open till Christmas--something to play with, she said. What a hoot! A whole slew of MaryKay products she found on ebay--for lips, eyes, nails, face, and feet--and even a mirror and a small bag to hold them all. I haven't worn makeup for years!

I am typing with "ruby slipper" fingernails. I feel like a 40s gangster's moll! Thanks so much, Janie!! :):)

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I've been working on Karma's present for several days--LOL!

Been a while since she's had her cat grass. Happy girl!

Today's real gift to her is the warmer weather. It's just warm enough for the snow to stick to her feet (she's been out three times already this morning) so that she can race inside to eat her footprints. ;)

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I've been busy up here. Made up some more bookcards.

Only made three holes this time. I think that's called the pamphlet stitch, but I'm not positive.

Then I pick a color of embroidery floss...

...to go with each one.

Stack them up, grab my little scissors, one of my blunt needles...

...and the zip lock bag full of embroidery thread scraps. (Yes, I save them to cut into tiny pieces to use in handmade paper--like thread confetti!)

Sewed the bookcards together while I watched TV one night. Seventeen of them this time. One's already in the mail. :) Now I need to work on making some more regular cards, too, so I have some of those to tuck letters inside.

I've also been working on the bookcase in the hallway now that I finally got the sturdier shelves. Freed up a shelf--TaDa!

And after I got this far I decided that I really should purge and freecycle all the magazines on that top shelf. I haven't gone back to them for ideas for a few years. (Easier to search online these days, to be honest.) So I plan to split them up, double bag them, and post them to give away after the holidays here. I have card making, beading, polymer clay, and watercolor magazines that I remember right off. Some local artsy-craftsy folk might be interested.

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Anyways, that will free up another shelf!! My plan is to move all the Cuttlebug stuff and all the bookbinding supplies into this bookcase--if I can fit it all on those two shelves. ;) Gunna try!

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Can you hear the sound of dominoes falling?

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I had a TV emergency on Christmas Eve-Eve. I lost the picture but still had the sound...only because my sound is not coming through my TV and is coming through my computer tower right now--and I have no control over the volume until the cord (Dagan found one online) arrives that we need to fix it.

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Dagan asked me to check the cords. I had checked the ones to the TV, but not the one to the computer tower. I went to see if it was firmly attached...and it fell right off. (I don't even look back here if I can help it because I find it quite intimidating.)

I thought I knew where the cord was supposed to go, but couldn't get it back on. Dagan (what a good son, eh?) stopped by after work and got it back on (in my defense, it was tricky) and the TV working again. I was relieved to have TV over Christmas, of course. What would I do without my tech support! ;)

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The last few days I have baked bread, cooked, made up TV dinners, written letters, done laundry, and made blueberry muffins from scratch. When I feel better I just keep puttering along. But that means I've hardly been on the computer. Maybe I'll have some time today...but right now I feel like shutting off the Christmas music, putting It's A Wonderful Life in the DVD player, and working on some thank you cards. :)

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Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

May you have joyous eat-your-footprints days!!

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"I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind."

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Instead of Dagan and Leah coming over here on Wednesday Dagan picked me up and I went to their place because Leah wanted to continue baking cookies. No problem. I was waiting for Dagan to call me to come down--when he showed up at the door with...wait for it...the bookcase shelves!! TaDa!!

I can finally get all the books stacked around on the floor of my bedroom back where they belong--whoohoo! I will never buy a super cheap bookcase again. The shelves sagged to the point of being dangerous within a week!

I will be happily cleaning and reorganizing in the bedroom soon. :)

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Anyways, right as I was getting on my coat--the fire alarm went off. Karma HATES the fire alarm so I'm so glad we were still here. I put her in the stroller, just in case, but with Dagan here to help haul her down the stairs...decided to wait and see if there was a real fire or not with it being so awful cold outside (was right around zero, I think). We've had the fire alarms go off regularly ever since I moved here and only once was there an actual fire (kids started the papers on the bulletin board in the lobby on fire)--so it's actually a really bad thing because only new residents going flying out the door. The rest of us don't believe it, move very slowly, and will probably go up in flames if there ever is one. It's like the boy who cried wolf, you know?

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Dagan went scouting--no smoke. Then we saw people coming back up to third floor with their dogs. They shouted over the ear-piercing alarm--a kid pulled it. The fire department hadn't even arrived yet--so the kid either confessed or was caught in the act. Karma and I didn't have to go out in the cold and sit in the garage until the fire truck left this time. Nice! :) But we waited until the firetruck came (didn't even have their lights on, so they'd been informed and took their time), shut off the alarm, tested it a couple of times like they do, and finally drove away before we headed out...ears ringing. So glad it was yet another false alarm.

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The other bigger box finally arrived from Amazon yesterday. Was scheduled to be here last Saturday. I'd say the mail is backed up a bit, eh?

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Two more winter scenery stamps!

Here's all four of them together. Can you tell Leah and I have fallen in love with winter scenes? LOL!

I have wanted to try some of the Inka-Gold metallic rub paste.

I have already seen online that if they are getting dried out you just fold up a baby wipe and close it inside the jar, so it should be okay.

Here's my fancy Danish whisk for the sour dough starter (and any other heavy doughs). I just thought it was the coolest looking thing! Like a piece of kitchen art!

And, last but not least, I ordered one of the new ArtBin satchels...

...that has inserts to hold all the tiny bottles that prefer to work better if they are stored upside-down.

You can remove the trays and stand them up at an angle, too, while you're working on something.

Put all my Stickles and Liquid Pearls in right away. Added some small paint bottles in the back, too.

This is just soooo cool! I have wanted storage for all these little bottles for a long time, but didn't really like the ones that were available...until I saw this! Keeps the dust out, too. ;) I could actually use another one, believe it or not. Love it!

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Anyways, right now I am working on constructing bookcards and then want to make up some more regular cards, too (am very low). Have thank yous to write. Letters have been exchanged over the holidays so I now have quite a few newsy letters to respond to, too. Nice-nice-nice!! You know how I love making cards...and paper, pens, and inks--ahhh!

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Sunny and five below in Fargo right now.

Just popped in quick to say hi and Happy Holidays!!

Smiles and hugs!!****

"How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all of its beauty? It felt the encouragement of Light against its being; otherwise we all remain too frightened."